Where The Newspaper Stands

May 19, 2005

The Coleman Bridge

Ask not for whom the toll rises, it rises, sooner or later, for all of us

When the Commonwealth Transportation Board meets today, it won't -- as it had been scheduled to do --vote on raising the toll on the Coleman Bridge. Too much political heat, and that's too bad. The toll should be raised.

The current toll isn't providing sufficient income to meet the terms of the original agreement under which the Coleman was upgraded. That alone is justification for an increase, but if the board needed more arguments, plenty exist.

For starters, the current toll for commuters crossing the York River at Yorktown and Gloucester Point is 50 cents. It was 60 cents back in 1976, when tolls on the Coleman were lifted.

A little history: In the 1990s, two things were apparent: The bridge had to be improved to handle increased traffic, and the Virginia Department of Transportation didn't have the money within its traditional funding stream to do the job in a timely manner. Tolls supplied the way around that financial roadblock. When the improved bridge opened in 1996, motorists had to pay a toll, but only in the northbound lanes. In fact, some of the toll rates for heavier vehicles were reduced shortly after the new tolls were in place.

Which gets us back to the present, and the fact that the toll revenue isn't paying for what it's supposed to pay for. VDOT hired a consultant, Charles River Associates, to study the situation, and CRA notes that adjusted for inflation, the current toll "represents only 25 percent of the 1976 roundtrip commuter toll." Drivers who woke up this morning to find their income worth only 25 percent of what it was worth nearly 30 years ago would most likely want a raise. The Coleman Bridge wants a raise.

The consultant gave the transportation board several options from which to choose. The most likely seemed to be an increase of the 50-cent commuter toll to 85 cents or $1. Some commuters, mostly Middle Peninsula residents (and their elected officials), fume at the prospect, but then who among them stormed to the General Assembly during the past session demanding an increase in the gasoline tax to help finance highways?

That question invites this reminder:

Virginia has the ninth lowest gas tax in the nation. It hasn't been raised since 1987. Inflation and better fuel efficiency mean people pay less per mile to travel, which is good -- but too much of a good thing can be bad. This is such a case. As the interest group Virginians for Better Transportation notes, the buying power of the gasoline tax has decreased 40 percent because of inflation since 1987.

The gas tax, by the way, is the state's primary source of transportation funding. Tolls, by contrast, play a puny role.

Count on that to change. Tolls are going to go higher, and they're going to appear on more and more crossings and highways. The folks on the Middle Peninsula are just getting a taste of the future. That's because Virginians allow their elected officials to avoid broader, more politically difficult decisions about transportation funding.

So the Commonwealth Transportation Board, an unelected part of the state's transportation bureaucracy, is now in the position of having to take the political heat for trying to face up to the costs of transportation. Too bad the board delayed a decision until June. It should have hiked the toll and been praised for acting responsibly. Too bad we can't seem to find enough politicians to do the same -- act responsibly on transportation. *

Uncorked

Let's toast a happy ruling for Virginia's wine industry

Here we are, 181 years after John Marshall's landmark decision voided a New York-granted steamboat monopoly, arguing about wine shipments from one state to another.

The U.S. Supreme Court never got around to Gibbons v. Ogden in its decision on Monday, but it might as well have. Congress regulates commerce; states do not. The Supremes say that states may not treat vineyards within their borders any differently than those without.

Does this render the operators of Virginia's many farm vineyards "free at last" to pack off their products to the rest of the nation? Not yet, but a healthy step has been taken in that direction.

In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy writes that the decision ends an "ongoing low level trade war" in which some states barred residents from ordering out-of-state wine, but allowed in-state orders.

That doesn't work under the Constitution, Kennedy wrote, because such laws deprive "citizens of their right to have access to other states' markets on equal terms." Dissenting justices bought into the wholesale industry argument that state powers to regulate alcohol granted under the 21st Amendment overrode the Commerce Clause, but c'mon. Either you have a national marketplace or not.

Fortunately, for the sake of one of the most appealing agricultural developments in recent decades in Virginia, artificial trade impediments may soon be rendered moot.

It's been a long time coming. Thomas Jefferson famously sought to make a go of wine-making in Virginia and flopped. But with better techniques and the encouragement of the Virginia Department of Agriculture, farm vineyards have grown since the mid-1980s and flourished all across the commonwealth.

But it's not just agriculture that benefits. Tourism gains, too. Some 300,000 out-of-state visitors tour Virginia vineyards each year, according to the Virginia Wineries Association. Many vineyards combine eateries with retail sales. Festivals are held in locations around the state.

In short, grapes are good for Virginia, and when the law clears out the rest of the trade impediments, this business will continue to grow and prosper and employ workers and draw visitors and generally make people happy.